3 strikes

BASEBALL has taken a cue from its own rules: With steroids, it's three strikes and you're out.

After a raft of bad publicity and public dithering, baseball Commissioner Bud Selig wants to harden a brand-new drug policy by making both penalties and testing even tougher.

It's a welcome step. A vaunted upgrade in testing, launched only eight weeks ago, came with flaws. The previous rules allowed up to five violations until a rule-breaker could be tossed from the game. Amphetamines weren't covered. Testing wasn't frequent enough to catch drug users.

Now these problems are largely remedied. A first offense will carry a 50- game suspension; a second, a 100-game ban followed by a permanent ban on the third offense. It's close to the sanctions used by the Olympics, which calls for a lifetime ban on the second offense.

On his own, Selig would never have lifted a finger to change baseball's wrist-slap drug rules. Last year, home runs were flying out of stadiums and fans were living in a golden era of new stadiums and record-setting stars. For years, drug use was barely acknowledged.

But now Selig and his front-office aides have awakened from their slumbering avoidance. The BALCO scandal, featuring stars such as Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi, made the issue unavoidable. Congress was weighing federal rules in the wake of hearings that featured quarreling players and execs.

Selig's new plan needs buy-in from the player's union and its head Don Fehr, a notorious foot-dragger on testing. But events have boxed in both him and Selig. Make a dramatic change for the better or face outside forces who will do the job instead. It's time to do more than play ball.